Paul Wellstone is dead and the Republicans want equal time?
Paul Wellstone is dead and the Republicans want equal time. I guess it don't hurt to ask.
Maybe they'll get it.
Maybe they'll win the election.
I have no idea.
All I know is Paul Wellstone is dead and the Republicans are upset because....well, allow me to quote Doug Grow of the Star Tribune:
"Let's see. There were more than 20,000 people on hand to honor a unique politician who wore his passion on his sleeve.
"Most of the 20,000 were true believers in Wellstone and his causes. The people who were closest to him -- Rick Kahn, a devoted campaign worker and friend, his two sons and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa -- delivered the eulogies.
"They pleaded with Wellstone supporters to keep up the senator's fights.
"This is shocking?"
Wellstone's campaign manager was quoted widely in the media as "regretting" the tone of the event; Here's the full context of his comments:
"It was not our intent to inject that into the service," campaign chairman Jeff Blodgett said of comments made at the Tuesday night ceremony. "I take responsibility for that and I deeply regret it."
The guy is a class act.
By the way, "that" was referring to the comments of Wellstone's best friend and campaign treasurer Rick Kahn who said, in part:
"We are begging you to help us win this election for Paul Wellstone."
He even pleaded with Republicans -- specifically U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad -- to work for Wellstone's Democratic replacement.
How did Ramstad feel about "that?"
Ramstad struck a conciliatory chord. He's still supporting Republican Norm Coleman for the Senate, but he said he's also grieving the loss of "a great, great friend" in Wellstone. He said he wasn't bothered that Kahn singled him out.
"I think it's unfortunate that a memorial service has become a center of controversy.
"Last night was about paying our final respects to six wonderful people and beloved Minnesotans who perished in a terrible tragedy. That was where my focus was.
"People get carried away sometimes with emotions. We all get carried away sometimes with emotions. Just let it be," Ramstad said.
Let it be. Wise words.
Other reports went like this:
Blodgett said the event at the University of Minnesota was not scripted and the comments of individual speakers were not previewed. Organizers simply asked participants to speak from their hearts, he said.
"I regret if people took offense or were taken by surprise ... We are a hurting bunch here," Blodgett said,
"...a hurting bunch..."
No doubt.
So, when Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Jesse Ventura, et. al. whine about the event, it kind of pales in comparison to the loss of Wellstone, the man.
Did you hear State Republican Party Chair Ron Eibensteiner complaining about the "great political imbalance" created by the broadcast?
The imbalance caused by the broadcast pales in comparison with the imbalance caused by the death of your candidate, your friend, your father.
Life is occasionally cruel. We know that. But that knowledge doesn't fully prepare us to cope when we have to experience the shock, the loss, the crushing disappointment of an instance like this.
So I guess I don't begrudge 25,000 people their 3-hour cathartic outpouring.
Go and ask Wellstone's family, friends and supporters this question -- if you could choose between getting your guy back and giving up three hours of raw cathartic emotion in return...well, which one would you choose?
Other comments from pundits included the following:
It was not in the spirit of Paul Wellstone, at all.
I dunno. Neither do they. But I would bet that his surviving family knows best of all what the spirit of Paul Wellstone would want. I trust them.
The Vice-President was told not to come.
I heard Mary Matalin speak about this. If she was mad, she wisely kept it to herself. This wasn't about Dick Cheney.
Republican challenger Coleman received death threats if he showed up.
Hm. I hadn't heard that. While it's true that Coleman wasn't there, he did tempt fate another way -- he continued his campaign the next morning by getting on a private plane nearly identical to Wellstone's. Is that bizarre, or what?
BTW, there were a lot of smiling faces and plenty of back slapping at that memorial.
Let people grieve however they want.
How would you have felt, if, the 911 memorial looked that way?
I remember one 9/11 memorial where a NYC firefighter told 25,000 people that Osama bin Laden could kiss his royal Irish ass.
...And the crowd at Madison Square Garden went...insane!
[Postscript: The crowd booed Hillary Clinton that night. Local radio station gleefully replayed that sound bite for days.]
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